Mostly gray skies today. The rather fierce breeze of yesterday evening diminished as the night wore on, and today was basically calm. I spent a little time over at the airport both this morning and then again this afternoon. I got a look at the Mountain Bluebird and possibly the Chipping Sparrow this morning, but I didn’t spot the other unusual wintering birds that have been around.
This afternoon I spent 10 minutes sitting on the south step. It was a bit earlier in the afternoon than yesterday, and in addition to just sitting and paying attention to my senses, I was tried to notice if there was any sentinel behavior from neighborhood birds. Although there were a few juncos around, some chickadees visiting Connor’s feeder, a raven, and a couple of Eurasian Collared-doves, I did not spot any birds in sentinel behavior. The doves were high up in the large alders south of my yard, but they were preening, which would suggest they were in more of a baseline state.
I did notice a couple of Song Sparrows – at least I think there were two. I didn’t get a good enough look at the first one to be sure it was different than the second (which had been banded, making it easy to identify as an individual). The first one flew south away from the brush pile along the fence line to the neighbor’s wood pile before I lost track of it. A few minutes later, the second one came from the west side of my house and flew into the brush pile. There have been at least 3, and possibly 4 or more Song Sparrows that have been visiting the yard this winter. Perhaps with a more regular sitting practice, I’ll get to know them better.